01 _Ogion Estate
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The Ogion Estate lies unseen in the highlands and green plateaus of Arcadia in Peloponnese, Greece. It’s located next to wooded slopes and streams that flow into Ladonas river, at an altitude of 400 m. Our ancestors used this land for olive cultivation during the last century. Yet, its name goes way back. Ogion was a small city still inhabited when Pausanias, the Greek geographer of the 2nd cent. C.E., visited Arcadia. The myth says that its name came from Ogios, its first king and also the son of god Apollo. Our estate is in the area where this city is believed to have existed. In the Renaissance, Arcadia was idealised because of its mountainous topography and untouched wilderness. Today, the wild and the tame are combined, shaping our definition of ‘utopia’ since 2000. |
02 _biodiversity
Why is our olive grove special?
The Ogion estate has almost 600 native, productive, and rain-fed olive trees.Wild boars in search of mushrooms and bulbs pay regular visits to our estate. Sometimes you can see small herds running towards our land’s forested areas. The tiny-mighty edible dormouse, a protected species, is moving around at night during the summer.
The end of spring is the perfect time for your nose to pick the smells of wild thyme and oregano. And later on, the bounty of St. John’s wort –the herbal remedy– will catch your eye. Wild asparagus hides in the vegetation, but figs, apples, and pears are within your hand’s reach. The wild pear, also known as almond-leaf pear, and the quince have a distinct taste and aroma. They find the ground of our estate ideal for their growth as wild olive trees do.
We take care of the olive trees of the previous generations. The new ones, which naturally grow in our land, are welcome as well. In our estate, birds nest in pine trees, cypresses, and oak trees, while the plane trees offer their shade to them lavishly.
Sustaining biodiversity while producing olive oil is hard work, but it seems we’ve managed to strike a balance.